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G-Watch is currently monitoring citizen entitlements under the government’s COVID-19 with focus on the Social Amelioration Program (SAP) and health care services.
The country’s COVID-19 response is now on a critical period. COVID-19 cases is growing exponentially more than ever before, yet the national government refuses another lockdown to keep the economy afloat. The health system is once again nearing its saturation point, making it pressing to assess whether and how the 3 months of the Bayanihan Law which had a budget allocation of at least Php 380 billion prepared our health system and the society for a moment such as now.
It is therefore critical that citizens and communities start to confront the situation at hand, take stock, account and explore ways forward to ensure that citizen rights, entitlements and welfare continue to be advanced and protected moving forward.
To engage local stakeholders on G-Watch’s monitoring of citizen entitlements under
the COVID-19 response and to rapidly assess and reflect on the government’s overall COVID-19 response so far, G-Watch is co-convening at the local/ community level a:
Local Multi-Stakeholder Consultation Series on Citizen Action and Entitlements under COVID-19
The series, which will be convened prioritizing the required health protocols and safety precautions, shall serve as an opportunity for local stakeholders to start collectively crafting recommendations and ways forward as the country prepares/ faces the ‘new normal.’
In some G-Watch sites, the event will be mainly a feedbacking on G-Watch’s Independent Validation of the Social Amelioration Program (SAP) of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD). In recent weeks, G-Watch local sites and partners have observed the validation of the DSWD and have also conducted an independent validation of SAP, interviewing house-to-house SAP beneficiaries and barangay officials in 14 barangays in 4 localities all over the country.
In other sites, there will be focused agenda that shall vary depending on what’s most crucial to the local context and local constituencies. These focused agenda include agriculture, health services, education and frontline workers’ rights. Finally, there are sites that will look at how citizen groups and movements have been adjusting their advocacies and collective actions given the COVID-19 pandemic.
The events shall also be an opportunity to disseminate more widely the knowledge products that G-Watch has produced from its monitoring of citizen entitlements that started in March 2020. To access some of these knowledge products of G-Watch on citizen entitlements under COVID-19 response, kindly check the links below:
https://www.g-watch.org/news-release/guide-citizen-entitlements-during-covid-19-crisis
https://www.g-watch.org/resources/vertical-integration-research/result-and-analysis-g-watch’s-online-survey-state-social
https://www.g-watch.org/think-piece/citizen-health-entitlements-covid-19-pandemic
https://www.g-watch.org/think-piece/facing-pandemic-citizen-entitlements-during-covid-19
https://www.g-watch.org/resources/reversing-accountability-learning-accountability-frontliners’-observation-dswd-social
For more information and details about the above series and knowledge products, please contact:
Government Watch (G-Watch)
Email: government_watch [at] yahoo.com
Mobile: 0917-1860298
Facebook page: @gwatch.ph
Twitter: @gwatch_ph